Last Friday, I celebrated my fourth wedding anniversary. It's a surreal year because four years ago, we were merely excited visitors to Williamsburg to become husband and wife. And now, four years later, we have made our dream come true of living where we married. The very fact that I can drive 20 minutes and be on Duke of Gloucester Street squeezes my heart like something fierce.
Personally, 2013 has been an incredible year as well as it was also the year of the big 3-0. I just know my thirties will be the best years of my life, so it was wonderful having my loved ones all together at our new home to kick off this new decade. And even though I said "no gifts," some friends and
photo-fam particularly spoiled me. I could dive into a ton of excited details about those, but there's one in particular that had me sobbing and why I feel so passionately about my brides' and their florals, professionally.
Call it my love of the Victorian, but I do believe even today's flowers are loaded with meaning and thought. And it's no wonder why I have quite a few florist friends... I'm obsessed with what they do and the art they create. It's a lost language on our modern times, but I like to pretend it still exists. :)
So when Mary, Shannon, and Piper showed up with one of their signature
Palette of Petals clear floral bags to my birthday shindig, it wasn't but a second later that I realized what was in there.
Dotted with pinecones, dusty miller, and a mixture of lovely white blooms, there it was. I looked at it, I looked at Mary, and back at it again... and the knowledge that a friend would craft something like this with so much thought and artistry started the waterworks. It was my dream wedding bouquet.
Over the years of knowing each other, Mary remembered my obsession with anemones and the silvery leaf of dusty miller, she remembered the pinecones and my dislike for white roses, she knew my love of teal. But the main heart-strung chord, she knew if I could have changed one thing about my dream wedding, it was my bouquet.
And here it was in the flesh, better than I could have ever imagined.
Because of the delicate nature of flowers, I wanted to make sure I captured it on film before I preserved it. And because me being me, there is a bit of symbolism behind the little details. I knew I didn't want to wear my gown again since I wasn't wanting to recreate my wedding day (I loved it as is!), rather, I chose to incorporate my wedding colors of navy blue. The wedding shoes represent the past, the cameo represents the present (as it was a gift from Rusty when we were in Italy at a real cameo workshop). With the help of Mom, we went out to our little backyard (our first Williamsburg home) and made some camera magic!
After this trip down memory lane, I feel so strongly about the power of visuals to help us cherish our wedding day years down the road. I want to proclaim to all husbands that beyond a typical floral arrangement, I think all ladies should have a Wedding Bouquet Part Deux sometime in their marriage. Seriously, can we make this a thing? :)
Thank you for being in our life, Mary and Shannon. Your love, friendship, and geek-out sessions mean so much to me. Cat family fur-ever. And super thanks to my Mom for "second shooting" this lil bouquet shoot for me!
